For the purpose of protection of skin lesion, transdermal absorption of drugs and fixation of gauze or tube and the like to the skin, medical adhesive tapes and sheets using various medical adhesives have been conventionally developed. Since medical adhesive tapes and sheets are mostly adhered to the skin, adhesiveness to the skin, and further, an ability to fix a tube and the like having a repulsive force to the skin are required. Simultaneously, they are required to cause no pain or damage such as separation of stratum corneum to the skin, and the like.
As an adhesive used for an adhesive layer of a medical adhesive tape or sheet, an adhesive constituted of a (meth)acrylic acid ester polymer superior in the adhesiveness and moisture permeability, and less chemically irritative to the skin is generally used.
However, since the adhesive strength of adhesive constituted of a (meth)acrylic acid ester polymer is too high, an adhesive tape or sheet using the adhesive may cause pain or damage to the stratum corneum and epidermis of the skin upon peeling off from the skin.
Particularly, when an adhesive tape or sheet is repeatedly applied to the same part, a skin damage accompanying bleeding may be caused, posing a serious problem.
To reduce such physical irritation to the skin, gel adhesives obtained by adding, to a (meth)acrylic acid ester polymer, a large amount of an organic liquid component compatible with the polymer and subjecting the polymer to a crosslinking treatment have been proposed (e.g., see JP-A-6-23029 and JP-A-6-319793).
Such gel adhesives can reduce and disperse the stress applied to the skin surface upon peeling, while maintaining the high adhesiveness that (meth)acrylic acid ester polymers have. Accordingly, the adhesives can be used for transdermal patches and medical surgical tapes since they cause less physical irritation to the skin and extremely infrequent separation of stratum corneum and the like.